[1][2] His clientele included the French royal family and nobility, foreign aristocracy, fermiers-généraux (tax farmers), and the wealthier members of Parisian society and their favourites.
Drouais's work was admired during his lifetime, and his popularity and clientele did not diminish from the occasional adverse judgement published in Salon reviews.
He was received into the Académie royale in 1758 with his morceaux des réception portraits of the celebrated sculptors Edme Bouchardon (1698–1762) and Guillaume II Coustou (1716–77).
Drouais attended the meetings of the Académie royale and, from 1755 until his death in 1775, exhibited regularly at the official Salons held in the Louvre in Paris.
Drouais was a favourite portrait painter of Jeanne Beçu, comtesse du Barry (1743–93) and, from 1772 until his death, held the position of premier peintre to Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, comte de Provence (1755–1824), known as Monsieur, later Louis XVIII.